Windows

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Win98SE won't boot on Dual Boot Machine

Everything was a OK when I left town on my DUAL BOOT Win XP Pro (SP2) on C& Win98SE on \ machine (Drive is FAT32 both partitions & both OS's appear in the boot loader, Win XP Pro appears fine and I can see both drives in Win Explorer), but when I returned I went to boot into Win98SE side to go to Win Updates as they just released a patch and I wanted to grab it. But when it was booting into Win98SE it stopped w/ the following message (white on black DOS, not blue screened).;

(The files were present in \Windows, all were the correct sizes & dates as the cab files. I have tried to SYS \ from a startup disk (Files transferred fine), tried to extract the files from the cabs (extractions were successful), and even tried to copy and paste the files from a slave (from Drive H actually), that I have installed that is an exact copy of both OS's on G & H as originally installed(a mirrored RAID drive copy installed as a slave right now).RAID is actually currently shut off.

No go for any of those items tried...No changes in the Win98SE boot failure message, though Win XP Pro boots just fine. Checked all 4 partitions on both drives w/ 3 online AV scanners and Norton Corp and no infection present. Also Win DR. shows no problems checking all the drives and I ran a complete Disk CHK on ALL DRIVES (5 step) by scheduling 1 via Disk Dr. (I normally use the Win98SE side only when XP screws up and takes a dump, I can boot into 98SE & use Win Explorer to back everything up to CD and then schedule a Disk Chk and usually fix XP Pro as this is my production machine.I'm missing something but I cannot for the life of me figure out what. Anyone have any ideas?The reversion to Drive C puzzles me to no end.

All Comments

Try the following. Edit d:\autoexec.bat file. Verify if exist path=d:\;d:\windows; line.If not, add to autoexec.bat. If is there boot win98SE in dos mode, and verify where is the win98se directory is, it?s the same with autoexec.bat path command?Edit the config.sys file, and verify the DEVICE=D:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS , and the other files what are failed to load is the same with autoexec.bat path command, and also the real path for this files.

Can I edit the d:\Autoexec.bat file from a cmd window in Win XP? Logged into XP Pro I ran a cmd window and then once the black command window was open I typed in Edit d:\autoexec.bat & enter, a blue edit window opened and was completely empty but it appears that I had edit capabilities, just want to know for sure what I am editing here and if that is all that should be there....I just exited until I know a bit more.

If I could just log into (boot) windows 98SE I often edit config.sys & autoexec.ba files to solve problems...but therein lies my problem. Is it best to use the startup disk and attempt to edit the file in DOS? Can that be done? Will it harm the bootloader?

Boot your win98se and press F8. From menu select confirm each line or something like this (I don?t remember right). This mean you can confirm to run or load each device from config.sys and each command from autoexec.bat. You can see here what?s the problem. After this you must verify that the needed files are in the right location, if not you can edit and modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

First off TY all for the info so far, and it will be rewarded. I have not tried any of the fixes yet as I just got back into town, but the SYS (they did transfer, but it didn't boot into 98SE), I tried before my original post along w/ attempting to copy and paste the files from my backup drive.

The same post had the "busted computer" link and the problems & fix info there is exactly what I seem to suffer from w/ this production box of mine....just not sure I can follow them exactly on a Dual Boot box w/ the XP bootloader and not change the XP boot path too.

Currently I'm so busy fixing WMF & other problems on customer's machines that I just don't have the stupid time to back this one up to CD and I dare not try to mess w/ it w/out doing so. I need the machine, and I don't absolutely need the Win98SE side to boot (well unless XP dumps also). I also can't back it up by using RAID as usual for fear of messing up my backup drive too.

If the 2 setups weren't just perfect I'd just re-install the OS and drivers on \ or reverse the drives in RAID and copy it, that and I really would rather take the time to work through the problem instead of use the re-install or copy option just so I know what to do next time faced w/ the same issue.

My boot path is suspect in my mind and has been since I set it up and it worked. Though I have been into the XP Bootloader before w/ recovery panel and actually repaired a problem before, I have never actually really understood HOW IT Fully Worked. Why is Win98SE Listed as on C when it is actually on the \ Partition? can anyone explain in basic terms what that boot path is saying in plain english? The logic fails me and always has as far as the XP Bootloader...I know it works, but I want to know why it works as written..."Opt In?" I did try the Edit option changing C to \...It didn't improve anything, booted into nothing, F8 and restored to last known good...re-edited.

[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptInC:\="Microsoft Windows 98SE" ______________________________________________Thanx for your patience all. If I could understand the bootloader language I could follow the directions to fix the problem I think.

I have done some looking around and I have noticed a few things....Getting to a Command Prompt isn't as easy in a Dual Boot w/ the Win XP Bootloader. Nearly Impossible for the Win98SE install on \Drive. XP is on C:\,The Win98SE Drive \ shows up properly in Windows Explorer. I have a ZIP100 showing as E:\Drive, My DVD/CD Burner shows up as F:\Drive, and my other hard drive partitioned exactly alike shows up as G & H properly.

But I looked in FDISK and I am showing the XP as C:\, then the extended partition, but when I looked at the logical drive in the extended partition (that is where the Win98SE install resides), it is actually labeled E:\Drive w/ a true volume label of (Drive_D).

This is NOT how I originally had it set up when I originally FDISKED and Formatted the hard drive before the OS installs. Somehow there was a drive letter change to the logical drive in the extended partition. I SYS'd E and I saw the Command.com file appear there w/ the rest of the files on the drive when I ran a DIR on E. It still won't boot into Win98SE as it is looking for the Command files on \...So now I know what's wrong...Just not how to safely fix it yet in a dual boot system.

Any other ideas? I also have 3 BU registry files to go to. rb000 (dated 12-19-05), rb001(12-20-05), & rb002(12-21-05)in the SYSBCKUP folder (I rarely booted into Win98SE after the setup of Win98SE so only 3 reg backups exist), but I have tried to run scanreg/restore & scanreg/fix on \ after booting w/ a boot disk and no go. Anyone know how to get that logical drive letter changed safely back to \ without destroying the setup?

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